UPDATE. FT:

Carlos Minc, Brazil’s new environment minister, won’t have his feet under his desk before the government auctions a concession to build and run the second of two controversial hydro-electric power stations in the heart of the Amazon on Monday 19.

And goodby to uncounted species of plants and animals. Business has won, as reported by Daniel Howden in The Independent:

Brazil has been accused of turning its back on its duty to protect the Amazon after the resignation of its award-winning Environment Minister fuelled fresh fears over the fate of the forest. The departure of Marina Silva, who admitted she was losing the battle to get green voices heard amidst the rush for economic development, has been greeted with dismay by conservationists.

“She was the environment’s guardian angel,” said Frank Guggenheim, executive director for Greenpeace in Brazil. “Now Brazil’s environment is orphaned.”

In a letter to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Ms Silva said that her efforts to protect the rainforest acknowledged as the “lungs of the planet” were being thwarted by powerful business lobbies.

Marina Silva

overcame poverty, disease and illiteracy in her childhood and adolescence. She was born in the state of Acre, and worked extracting rubber from trees in the forest. She met Chico Mendes, and joined his efforts to organize peaceful demonstrations against deforestation. Mendes was assassinated in 1988. In 5 years as a Minister, with determinacy, she changed the Brasilian Govt. previous culture: environmental illiteracy and straight developmentalism. And became a global green icon. FACTS MATTER:

– 1m sq km of land in the Amazon in recent decades have been cleared, subtracted;

– after some improvement, the situation is now worsening again, namely South of the rio Amazonas. Half of world rainforests, this is a unique environment, basically because the only one unchanged across 11 million years, not just a few thousands.

– For the first time in the entire history of Brasil, the voice of the couple “Indigenous people – Rainforest” had entered the Govt. Now it is out again.

FT

Brazil’s environment minister quits

By Jonathan Wheatley in São Paulo

Published: May 14 2008 22:23 | Last updated: May 14 2008 22:23

Brazil’s environment minister has resigned after becoming increasingly isolated within the government.

Marina Silva, who rose from poverty in the Amazon state of Acre to become a global figurehead for environmental activists, resigned late on Tuesday in a manner typical of her way of operating: she wrote to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and immediately announced her decision to the media, leaving no room for possible negotiation.

(..) during five years in the job she found herself in growing conflict with ministers pressing for the approval of infrastructure projects, many of which have been held up by the long process of obtaining environmental licences.

The most visible such project concerns the River Madeira in the Amazon, where two hydroelectric generating plants are to be built against fierce resistance from indigenous people and environmental groups. Mr Lula da Silva irritated Ms Silva by commenting that Brazil’s economic development was being held up “for the sake of a few fish”.

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